PART 13

Day 47 after the accident – Bette Porter’s/Tina Kennard’s house

“You gotta to be fucking kiddin’ me” Bette exclaims.
“Obviously, I’m not” Alice states, emphasizing the first word.
“I don’t really know what the fuck is wrong with you”. Bette stands up from the couch and goes directly to the kitchen. She puts the mug into the sink and taps her fingers against the counter.
“It is not enough that Carmen is going through all the shit she’s going through. You come here and tell me that Shane is loosing her mind”.
“Bette…” Tina says, calmly. Her blue eyes look worried, concerned.
Tasha is staring at her own hands. She’s sitting right beside Alice and her face says it all. She knows that, this time, her girlfriend is not exaggerating things. She knows that Alice is right. And actually, you can read in her eyes. Words are totally useless.
Alice is not joking.
Alice is not wordplaying.
Alice is not making jokes.
Alice is not even smiling.
Alice went straight to the point.
Alice has tired eyes and it’s pretty obvious that she didn’t sleep well lately.
And Bette’s reaction is instinctual, but quite over the top.
Which means that Bette knows what the truth is. And that she’s really scared.

“Bette, please come back here. I want to show you something” Tasha states, evenly.
Bette closes her eyes for a second, then comes back and sits on the couch, arms crossed.
Sighing, Tasha extracts a binder from Alice’s bag. Silently, she opens it and turns it towards Bette, Tina and me.

“My old friend Dante shot these pictures”, she says.
Alice doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t even look at the photographs. Sure as the sun, she’s already seen them.
“Who’s Dante?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“Uhm… I met him while I was in Afghanistan. He’s Italian. He has been there for three months, so I got to know him pretty well”.
“Is he a soldier?” Tina asks.
“No”.
Tasha shakes her head.
“He was a policeman. Italy sent some police squads to Afghanistan and Iraq, together with the Army. He was a NOCS member”.
“What the hell is NOCS?” I ask.
“NOCS is a special police unit, member of the Central Operational Security Nucleus. It is responsible for many things… high-risk interventions, arrest of dangerous fugitives, rescue of hostages, counter-terrorism operations…”.
“So it’s a special intervention team…” Bette says, nodding her head.
“Yeah…”. Tasha exhales, as Tina takes one of the pictures and observes it attentively.
“Dante was a member of NOCS, a negotiator. A good one. Then a rocket-propelled grenade injured him badly… and he returned home. Six months later, he was declared unfit for military service. He left the Police. And became a private investigator”.
“Did you hire him?” Tina asks.
“Not really. I met him casually a week ago. He’s in town with his wife, for pleasure. They’re making a road trip through United States for their honeymoon. They married in Vegas two weeks ago”. Tasha smiles slightly.
“I see…” Bette says distractedly. Her eyes are transfixed on the pictures.
“Considering what Carmen told us about her sensations, and what we found later in her studio, we thought the he could help us…” Alice cuts in.
“What did you find?” I ask.
“Jenny…” Alice starts, scratching her forehead, and a shiver goes down my spine.